“I will bat for five hours today,” joked Rishabh Pant as he hit the nets ahead of India’s T20 World Cup Super 12 match against South Africa in Perth on Sunday.
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Amidst the usual selfie requests at the net session outside the Optus Stadium came a wish. “Bhai opening kar lo India ke kismat badal jayegi,” says a fan to Pant.
The 25-year-old hasn’t played a single delivery at this T20 World Cup. But that wasn’t reason enough for him to not polish his batting touches on Saturday. Pant, along with Dinesh Karthik, Shardul Thakur and Deepak Hooda, were the only India batters who took guard in the optional training session.
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Rishabh Pant padding up before hitting the nets while in the left, Mohammed Siraj stretching before a bowling session.
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With two wins in two games, the Group 2 toppers embarked on their preparation for the big contest in Group 2, having arrived from Sydney to the western Australia city on Friday after their win over Netherlands on Thursday.
South Africa, who beat Bangladesh by a comprehensive 104 runs on Thursday, took to the nets first as dark clouds loomed large over the Optus.
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South Africa team practices on the eve of their game against India in Perth.
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With their leading run scorer at the World Cup, Virat Kohli, seated in the front of the team bus just as Sachin Tendulkar once used to, the men in blue arrived at the venue for an optional training session on Saturday afternoon.
Dinesh Karthik was the first one to hit the nets alongside India’s bowling coach Paras Mhambrey while the captain-coach duo of Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid arrived together. The latter would have an intimate pep talk with the net bowlers before turning his attention to the 15-member India squad.
Designated as the finisher in India’s XI, Karthik also had an elaborate keeping session that included fielding coach T Dilip feeding him low throw downs on a ramp with a towel in between to hide the release of the ball.
Dinesh Karthik does a wicket keeping drill. It’s called a blind drill where Indian team fielding coach T Dilip gives him throw down keeping towel in between.
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There was a bit of a scare as the wicketkeeper went down, holding his finger in pain following an attempted catch but it wasn’t a serious blow as Karthik continued through his session with more catches afterwards.
India’s net session was stopped briefly because of a drizzle. After two crucial Group 1 fixtures were washed out at the MCG on Friday, the forecast for Sunday in Perth would come as a relief with only 20 percent chances of precipitation.
